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2021 jazz albums round-up with Chris Searle
Classic jazz immortals set the tone

OF ALL the jazz albums that have burst into sound in 2021, my favourite is They All Be On This Old Road (Ogun Records), recorded in London in 1976, and featuring two late protean masters, saxophonist Elton Dean, the son of Nottingham Salvation Army stalwarts, and pianist Keith Tippett, whose father was a Bristol policeman.

Surprising jazz origins perhaps, but out of such roots were their separate musical genius born, and playing in a quartet with British bassist Chris Lawrence and the Cape Town drums supremo Louis Moholo-Moholo, they created a record of powerful and historic vibrancy.

Dean combines an extraordinary attack on the opener Edeeupub and Dede-Bup-Bup with tender lyricism on ballads like Nancy with the Laughing Face and Coltrane’s Naima.

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